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It seems these days that Angeleno’s escape LA with a quick 2-hour commute to Palm Springs or a 45-minute flight to Vegas. There’s one quick LA Getaway that often goes overlooked until now…

…okay well not the actual Catalina Wine Mixer, but Catalina Island.

I visited a couple years ago with my husband and our oldest son, Brian. This time I wanted to grab content for my company (Schoolyard Marketing–which we’ll talk more about later) and brought along Actress Camille Hyde, Actor Brandon Larracuente, and Girl Boss Jazmin Garcia. We made a day trip out of it and were lucky enough to experience some awesome moments. I’ll have a vlog up ONCE I figure out why FCPX things are running from my computer hard drive and not the external (this week). But here’s a rundown of the awesome day trip!

We were able to commute to and from the island courtesy of IEX Helicopters. The quick 15-minute Helicopter ride offered gorgeous views of the California Coastline as well as the Pacific Ocean. No, we did not see any dolphins (or whales). I swear dolphins don’t love me even though they are my fave. I have yet to ever see them in the wild (don’t judge my ignorant SeaWorld visit at 13—I didn’t know any better then). The pilots were extremely friendly and we also found out that Kobe flies with the company…cause why commute any other way when you’re that ballin? lol. After landing (which you’ll see on MY CHANNEL soon, so subscribe now 😉) We took a taxi/shuttle thing to the “downtown” area. It was a literal 5- minute ride that hugged Avalon’s coastline for the 4 of us, it was $13-14. We had an hour or so of open time and decided to grab drinks. Got to chat, get to know everyone a little better.

From there we took another cab to check in for Parasailing, courtesy of Parasail Catalina. It was actually my first time parasailing. I really wanted to see dolphins…but no. It was such an awesome experience, being up in the sky with one of my best friend’s Camille Hyde made the experience so much sweeter. Nothing like being over the vastness of the ocean while floating up in the sky. The crew was so friendly and kind.

We then picked up a golf cart from Catalina Island Golf Cart Rentals and headed over to Descanso beach for a late lunch. We were able to drive along the coastline among some gorgeous palm trees and of course the crystal blue water. We ate a couple appetizers as pictured to the right, entrees, and of course ordered some drinks! I believe Camille had a Salad, I opted for wings as an entree, Jazmin had a burger, and Brandon had a buffalo chicken sandwich. All were delicious but the dish that stuck out most to me was the pokè bowl that we had as an appetizer. For the drinks we I had a Jalepeño margarita and Jazmin and Brandon had something called “The Destroyer”.

After getting some content on the beach we ran for our golf cart to make it in time for our flight back to the mainland. [Sidenote: It’s really crazy how Catalina is almost untapped to our generation (millennials) when there’s so much more to do than places like Palm Springs or any other day trips in SoCal] Anyway, in the golf cart we pulled up to a taxi driver and asked him to meet us at the golf cart rental place, and he actually tailed us. haha. We didn’t want to possibly miss our flight so we made sure that we got in and out as quickly as possible. Luckily we got to the heliport with some time to spare. Overall, Catalina is a great place to head out to for a day or weekend trip. If you ever need a break from LA, I think Catalina is LA’s best not-so-secret secret. It has everything us millennials want from beautiful views, instagrammable areas, fun activities, and a beach you can actually drink on! The people living on the island are super kind, as are the business owners that we partnered with. I definitely will be taking more day and weekend trips over and highly recommend it as a must see to my readers/friends/etc.